Latest GAIN vouchers support data center and advanced reactor development

The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy announced on September 24 four new GAIN vouchers. GAIN-the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear-selected four companies to receive vouchers to advance microreactor technologies, identify potential sites capable of hosting a nuclear-powered data center, and prevent corrosion in molten salt reactors.

Like all GAIN vouchers, these-the fourth and final round for fiscal year 2024-don't give companies direct financial awards. Rather, they provide access to the nuclear research capabilities and expertise of the DOE's national laboratories. All awardees are responsible for a minimum 20 percent cost share, which could be an in-kind contribution. More information on the GAIN nuclear energy voucher program can be found here.

Advanced Nuclear Advisors: ANA of Ooltewah, Tenn., will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to identify potential sites in the United States that could host advanced nuclear capacity and data centers through "Project SparkHub," an effort to identify sites that the company could move forward with in future licensing efforts. ANA is a consulting firm that wants to enable new nuclear project development by identifying, characterizing, and licensing sites that can host both a hyperscale data center and advanced nuclear capacity to power the facility. ANA plans to use the ORNL-developed OR-SAGE tool to perform site screening. After the GAIN project, ANA plans to begin licensing activities to obtain an early site permit on a technology-neutral basis to support development of the site.

Antares Nuclear: Antares Nuclear of Redondo Beach, Calif., will work with ORNL to perform an independent technical audit of the company's heat pipe-cooled microreactor, called Antares R1, to verify core neutronics and thermal hydraulics. Antares is looking for an independent assessment of the design prior to larger hardware demonstrations to help confirm the design and parameters of its thermosiphon-cooled microreactor for use in austere environments and off-grid settings. ORNL's Reactor Analysis Group will verify design calculations to yield high confidence that hardware test campaigns predicated on neutronics data are valid, allowing Antares to move through test stages to a fueled demonstration of the system.

NANO Nuclear Energy: NANO of New York, N.Y., will collaborate with Idaho National Laboratory to evaluate the novel heat exchanger design of ZEUS, its modular microreactor, through computational modeling and sensitivity analysis. According to a research abstract, the1-MWe ZEUS does not use a primary fluid coolant, instead featuring heat transfer by conduction through a solid moderator matrix. NANO plans to remove heat from the reactor vessel using an open-air Brayton cycle. Working with INL, NANO will perform an independent evaluation of the heat exchanger design. This will include the development of a computational model of the heat exchanger to help analyze the design and confirm certain attributes that are critical to the reactor operations.

Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich of St. Louis Mo.-formally doing business as MilliporeSigma-will work with INL to begin to standardize test methods for detecting oxide impurities in salts to prevent corrosion issues in molten salt nuclear reactors and other high-temperature industrial applications. Corrosion caused by oxide impurities in molten salts, such as chlorides and fluorides, presents a challenge for high-temperature applications in the nuclear energy field, and most manufactured high-purity salts lack oxide impurity data. MilliporeSigma and INL will work to verify consistent test results between the company and lab regarding oxygen content of very high-purity chloride salts utilizing oxygen analyzers, identify best practices for a preliminary framework for a standardized test method, and down-select appropriate materials and certification specifications for chloride salt reference standards.